Box Score 

MONTCLAIR, N.J. – Sophomore outside hitter Devon Johnston collected a season-high 22 kills, along with 14 digs and four total blocks, as Montclair State (15-9, 6-1 NJAC) posted its fourth straight victory with a four-set win against local rival William Paterson (13-5, 2-4 NJAC) in NJAC volleyball action Oct. 14 at the MSU Student Recreation Center.

Junior Kelly Helfrich (Clark, N.J./Arthur L. Johnson) had 14 kills, 20 digs and six solo blocks for the Pioneers, who had a three-match win streak snapped.

Junior Karen Martin added 11 kills, three service aces and 10 digs for the Red Hawks Montclair dropped the first set 30-28, but finished off the match by capturing the next three, 25-21,25-19, 25-16.

The first set was tightly contest until the Pioneers used a six-point run on the service of Helfrich to take a 16-9 lead. The lead would grow to 20-13 as Montclair committed a ball handling error, but the Red Hawks responded with a seven-point run of their own. Adrianne Moe had two aces during the spurt, and three consecutive WP hitting errors tied the set at 20-20. From that point there would be seven ties as the Pioneers held off three set-points before finally ending the set on a service ace by Amanda Mitchell (Secaucus, N.J./Secaucus) for the 30-28 win.

Set two would feature more of the same, until the Red Hawks slowly built up a five-point lead at 13-8 on a William Paterson attack error. The Pioneers would close the game to 20-19 on a kill by freshman Megan Maher (Wood-Ridge, N.J./Wood-Ridge). But, Johnston tacked on two of her five kills in the set to make the score 22-19, and she later served out the set as Montclair squared the match at a set apiece on a kill by Martin for a 25-21 win.

Johnston had five kills and Martin three aces in the third set as Montclair went up 2-1 with a 25-19 victory. After being up by as many as eight in the set (15-7), William Paterson came back to take a 19-18 lead. But Montclair would run off the final seven points, including a pair of aces by Martin. Kara Burnham and Johnston finished off the set with a block, one of nine by the Red Hawks in the match.

In the fourth set, William Paterson jumped out to a 6-0 lead as Samantha Reed (Dumont, N.J./Dumont) had a pair of aces while Helfrich had two kills. MSU would win 10 of the next 12 points to take a two-point lead, however William Paterson regained the advantage on a Helfrich kill at 12-11.After two more ties, Montclair took advantage of two Pioneers hitting errors and a kill by Johnston to go up 17-14. Johnston would put down three more kills and the Red Hawks completed the win as Martin recorded her last kill for a 25-16 triumph.

Burnham had six kills and seven total blocks for MSU while registering three kills, five service aces and eight digs. Sophomore Kristen Ruggieri had 35 assists and eight digs, with libero Meghan Stevens posting a team-best 18 digs.

Maher had eight kills, six assists and 10 digs for William Paterson, while Chi Chi Okeke (Newark, N.J./Science Park) added six kills. Jillian Bronowich (Secaucus, N.J./Secaucus) led the Pioneers with 15 assists, while Mitchell and Mailyn Rodriguez (Hackensack, N.J./ Hackensack) recorded 13 and 11 digs, respectively.

William Paterson will return to action Thursday, Oct. 16, at home against Mount St. Mary at 7:00 p.m.